A month-old baby girl was kidnapped from the Harry Gwala Clinic in Zamdela, near Sasolburg, yesterday afternoon.
Free State police say the 29-year-old mother was at the clinic with her two daughters when a woman approached her and asked to hold the baby.
The mother went into the consultation room and when she came out a while later to check on the baby, they were gone.
Police say witnesses saw the woman, in her 30s, leave the clinic in a hurry, but did not suspect anything at the time.